


Shake It Off, We've All Been Dead Before

by NiteWrighter



Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-01-15 08:41:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12317583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NiteWrighter/pseuds/NiteWrighter
Summary: Destiny Ficlet Dump for my OC's.





	1. To The Farm Part 1

In retrospect two warlocks and a hunter wasn’t an ideal fireteam, but it was what they were. There wasn’t time to establish defense points, create openings for reinforcements to push through, it was just the three of them, cutting their way through the levels of the command ship, hoping they could reach whoever was commanding the Red Legion in time. Cut off the head and pray the chain of command collapses with it. They were three, Cyprian-5, the sunsinger, Aria Turetsnikov, the voidwalker, and Val Phaed, the nightstalker.

They stumbled out into the din of battle, the sound of explosions underscored by the rattle of rain.

“He’s not here,” said Cyprian-5, “We need to find the command deck---maybe we can find the Speaker and--”

“Look,” said Aria’s ghost.

Val and Cyprian-5 looked to see the star-like construct enclosing itself on the traveler.

“What are they  _doing_  to her?” Aria’s voice was barely audible amidst the explosions and the rain.

“How do we come back from this?” said Cyp’s ghost.

“You don’t,” a voice spoke behind them.

The commander of the red legion towered over all three of them. Aria didn’t hesitate. She leapt into a swift and graceful warlock glide, a nova bomb forming in her hand, and Cyprian-5 moved to flank.

Then Val felt a sudden, horrible, hollow feeling in his chest, and an incredible feeling of weakness and exhaustion overcame him. He looked back at the traveler to see the star-like apparatus affixed to it emitting some kind of sickly yellow light around it. A cage. They put the the traveler in a cage. They caged the light.

“Guardian....something’s wrong--” his ghost started to say before it flickered and dropped. Val managed to catch it and stuff it into the interior of his cloak before looking up at Aria. Aria’s glide had fallen into a mid-air tumble, her nova bomb fizzled out of existence, and Ghaul seized her by the front, her gun clattering to the side from the force of his grasp. Ghaul’s huge hand easily gripped her upper torso. One good squeeze and he could probably crush her, armor, ribs and all. She brought up a hand to strike him but no void magic burst from her palm. Her hand couldn’t even reach his face.

“Welcome to a world without light,” said Ghaul. He gave a slight squeeze and Aria’s legs weakly flailed in pain and her hand dropped from attempting to throw a black hole in his face to trying to pry his hand off of her torso. Ghaul stopped his squeeze when auto-rifle fire crackled on the back of his armor.

“Let her go!” Cyprian-5 had managed to flank before the loss of light really hit them, and he held his auto-rifle at the ready.

“Poor choice of words,” said Ghaul, tossing Aria aside.

The movement was thoughtless, effortless for Ghaul. Aria was short and slight of build, even for a warlock, but nonetheless she was still an entire person, and yet Ghaul’s throw sent her hurtling over the edge of the ship.

Cyprian-5 didn’t think. He ran for her. Maybe he could make it. Maybe he could grab her arm before she completed her arc into the rainy abyss. Everything slowed down. Half of Val’s brain was screaming  _Pick up your gun, Hunter. Shoot them. Give Cyp cover._  The other half felt the ghost a cold and empty chassis against him, and just said,  _This is death. This is death. This is death_ , over and over. Still, out of instinct, Val grabbed his rifle and aimed it just as the blast from Ghaul’s psions’ rifles pierced through Cyprian-5′s chest.

The exo fell. The last thing Cyprian-5 would see was Aria falling into the smoke and rain below. Val was alone. Val looked at Aria’s ghost and pulled it close as Ghaul’s footsteps pounted toward him. He looked up at the pale head of Ghaul.

“Do not look at me, creature!” Ghaul kicked him and sent him bouncing across the ship. Val coughed, half-waiting for his ghost to repair the ribs Ghaul had broken before realizing that couldn’t happen. “You are weak,” Ghaul said, stepping toward him, “Undisciplined. Cowering behind walls. You are not brave. You have simply forgotten the fear of death.” Val had managed to stagger to his feet again, his hand going for his sidearm before Ghaul reached him. “Allow me to reacquaint you,” said Ghaul. The next hit knocked Val back even further, there was only a shock and dull pain and the ground scraping against his back. Somewhere in the midst of his sliding across the steel of the deck, he felt something slip from his cloak. He slid to a stop and turned his head just in time to see his ghost fly over the edge. He watched it tumble into darkness and instinctively reached out a hand for it before slumping in despair.

“Your kind never deserved the power you were given,” Ghaul went on, Val could hear his footsteps, a dark heartbeat behind him. 

“I am Ghaul,” the commander of the red legion spoke when Val finally looked up into his pale face again, “And your light,” he put one foot on Val’s chest, “Is mine.”

It only took the slightest push to send Val over the edge and he tumbled down, down down into the rain and darkness.


	2. To the Farm Part 2

“Get up, Hunter.” Val heard a voice with the slight reverb that could only be a ghost. Not his ghost. Not Millie. His world was black and wet and smoky, all senses dulled by pain. He curled up a little where he laid. 

“Get up,” the ghost said again, and Val felt a nudge on his faceplate, “Up. Now.”

Val’s eyes opened. He was back in the city, or fallen to the city, he knew that much. It was dim and rainy. He could hear the comms of the Red Legion crackling and growling in the distance, and low lights from legion ships sweeping over the city. 

“Good. You’re not dead,” said the Ghost. It was a tarnished black and gold ghost with a sober, dignified voice. It was the kind of voice you expected to hear from someone wrapped up in a smoking jacket in a large, imposing but cushy armchair near a roaring fire, but instead it issued forth from the geometrically complicated panels of a ghost.

“…you’re not my ghost,” said Val.

“Decidedly not,” said the Ghost, “Up. We’re finding my guardian.”

“Your guardian…” Val squinted at the ghost’s chassis and saw the golden eagle on it, “Aria—You’re Aria’s ghost.”

“Hit your head when you fell, I take it?” said the ghost, hovering along, “Come on. She’s this way.”

“How do you know?” said Val.

“I searched through the whole solar system for her once. I can find her in one city,” said the Ghost. Val pushed himself to his hands and knees and winced hard at a deep pain in his side, but still he limped after the ghost. 

“You got a name?” asked Val.

“Ghosts don’t need names,” said the ghost.

“…I always thought ‘Ghost’ sounded morbid,” said Val.

“You named your ghost?” said the ghost.

“We picked out a name for her together.”

“A name and a gender. You’re a regular Osiris,” said the ghost.

Val huffed and continued walking along, hand on his side. The city was a wreck. Sky walkways collapsed, buildings burning, He dipped into the shadows as a contingent of red legion guards passed by before hurrying across what seemed to be the remains of a garden, now littered with broken hunks of buildings and jagged juts of rebar and metal.

Val scrambled up the half-collapsed pile of cement when the ghost suddenly perked up. “This way!” the ghost hissed, suddenly rushing forward through a narrow alley.

“Easy—Hold on—-“ Val winced and grabbed his side as he struggled to keep up with the ghost that wasn’t his own. There was more crawling under dubiously suspended areas of walkways wedged between buildings until they reached an area Val could almost recognize. There were swathes of wide red cloth that stretched across an open skylight. One of the city’s bazaars. Most of the exits were collapsed with the Red Legion’s first assault, which thankfully lent some cover to the area. “Here,” said the ghost, “She’s here.”

Val heard a whirring and glanced up.

“Guardian—?” he heard a voice. He knew that voice.

“Mills—“ he looked up to see a half-crushed blue and white ghost hovering up near the skylights.

“Guardian!” Millicent rushed down to him, “Oh you’re alive—-you’re—-“ she spiraled around him “Hold still,” said Millicent. Val let in a shuddering breath at the familiar feel of the light stitching him back together, but it wasn’t the same, not as before. It didn’t feel right, not exactly. Val gave glance upward at where the Traveler hung over the city, partially obscured by the red banners, and his stomach dropped.

“What did they do?” said Val, looking at the dark star-like contraption affixed to the traveler.

“We’re cut off from the light,” said Millicent, “I can heal you but if you die…”

Val swallowed hard and then watched as the black and gold ghost floated up to a tangle of red cloth.

“Here,” said the ghost.

“What?” Val squinted and could make out a vaguely human shape all but mummified within the tangle of red banners.

“The banners broke her fall. We need to get her down,” said the ghost.

“Easy,” said Val. He jumped. And landed. And jumped again. And landed. And jumped again. And was still in the exact same spot on the floor as when he first jumped.

“You don’t have the light,” said Millicent.

“…right,” said Val. 

He drew a knife from his side.

“Let’s hope your aiming wasn’t light-dependent either,” muttered Aria’s ghost.

Val did his best to ignore the barb and threw the knife. It struck one of the bars securing the banners and broke off three of the rings. The banner, now lacking one of its holds, tore, the wrapped up figure inside it sliding downward.

“There we go,” said Val walking over, picking up his knife, “No light, no Traveler, no proble—Oh shit—-”

The warlock tumbled out from her caul of banners and Val had to leap and tackle her out of the air to keep from hitting the ground head-first. He rolled and tumbled across the uneven cement ground with the unconscious warlock in his arms with a painful grunt.

“…graceful,” said Aria’s ghost as Val recovered to a upward seated position with the unconscious warlock splayed across his lap. Val cleared his throat and supported the back of her head.

“Okay,” he exhaled, giving her a slight shake, “Come on, wake up, Voidshine—-”

“Voidshine?” said Aria’s ghost.

“Well…she’s hardly sunshine,” said Val, “Come on—just—-“ He looked up at Aria’s ghost, “You healed her, right?” 

“As soon as I knew it was her,” said the ghost, “Let me just…”

The helmet phased off of her head. Val blinked a few times. He had half-expected her to be awoken, with the way she carried herself, but she was human. She had pixie-short light blonde hair, pasty skin, and delicate features. 

“No sign of concussion,” muttered the ghost, hovering around Val’s shoulders, “Guardian? Guardian! Get up and—-!”

“Keep your voice down,” Millicent hissed, “This city’s still crawling with the legion.” 

“Maybe just—-?” Val’s hand moved toward the side of her face but hesitated, hovering less than an inch from her skin.

“Whatever you’re going to do, I suggest you do it,” said Aria’s ghost, “Just… staring at her like this is creepy.”

“I’m not trying to be creepy!” Val snapped, “I just—” he gave a few short gentle slaps to her cheek with his fingers, “Hey—Warlock—Aria—”

“Gah!” Her eyes snapped open, gray and wide and she suddenly struck Val hard in the jaw with the heel of her hand. Val reeled back from the strike as she tumbled out of his lap, her breathing sharp and short and panicked as her eyes flicked around.

“Aria! It’s us!” said her ghost as her hand went to her sidearm. Aria blinked several times and scanned across Val and the two ghosts. Val rubbed his jaw, tasting blood in his mouth.

“Sorry—Sorry I was just…” she reached out towards his face but withdrew her hand.

“It’s fine,” said Val, still rotating his jaw, “Heck of a punch for a warlock.”

Aria looked at her hand, curling and uncurling her fingers and Val realized, had they still had the light, his head would have been collapsed by the void with her strike. 

“The mission—” said Aria, looking up from her hand, “The command ship…”

Val shook his head. “I’m sorry.” 

“Cyprian-5?” said Aria.

Val looked down. Aria’s hand went over her mouth. Val wondered if the masks and helmets the guardians wore made things easier. You didn’t have to see each others faces when you died over and over again. You didn’t have to see the fear in comrades’ eyes. Aria’s eyes were wet and shining.

“We need to get out of the city,” said Val.

“What?” said Aria, “But the Traveler—”

“The city’s been evacuated,” said Aria’s ghost. 

“We can’t _leave_ her!” said Aria, gesturing upward at the Traveler, “We can’t leave her with _them!_ The Speaker—-what about the Speaker?” 

“No one knows where he is,” said Millicent, “Either he was killed by the Cabal or…”

“…or worse,” said Aria.

“Look,” said Val, “We don’t have the light.”

Aria shut her eyes and her mouth tightened at his words.

“No light, no Vanguard, no backup,” said Val, “Our best chance to stay alive is to get out of the city.”

Aria looked back up at the Traveler, staring up at it until her ghost nudged her hard in the shoulder, forcing her to break her eyes from the Traveler.

“Chin up, poppet,” said the Ghost, “It’s not forever. Just until we figure things out.”

Aria exhaled, then looked at Val. “We’ll come back for her,” she said, her brow furrowing.

Val nodded. “Yeah—yeah we’ll come back.”

“I want your word—we get help and we come back for her,” said Aria.

“Look, we don’t know how possible that would actually be—-“

“Val,” there was a cold fury in her eyes. 

Val exhaled. “We’ll come back for the Traveler. We’ll come back when we have a plan. I promise,” said Val. He stood up and extended a hand to her.

“All right,” said Aria taking his hand, “We’ll get out of the city. We’ll get out of the city and we’ll find the bird.”

“Great,” said Val, “Great plan,” he paused, “What’s this about a bird?”


	3. Mithrax

“Lower your gun,” Aria’s voice was hushed. Val glanced away from his scope to look at her like she was crazy. The Fallen captain kept two blades at the ready, and his third hand still gripped his sidearm. “Lower it,” she said more insistently, the misty light within her Eye of Another World helm roiled with her tense mood. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that sometimes when she was really high-strung, the helmet reminded him of a shaken up snowglobe of stars and mist. Val sighed and lowered his gun and the Fallen captain chittered and gave a slight wave with one of his swords.

“Not to go all ‘sad backstory’ on you but I really don’t think—” Val started and his ghost shushed him.

The fallen captain gave a few wary steps forward and waved his sword. Not an aggressive wave—though like any Fallen worth his salt, he wasn’t about to drop his weapons.

“If he kills one of us—” Val started again.

“He won’t,” said Aria. Val gave a glance to Aria’s Ghost. The ghost made a partially expanding motion with its upper hemisphere that Val interpreted as shrugging.

They stared the fallen captain down for a few more seconds before Aria took a hesitant step forward and gave her short, yet slightly flourishing warlock bow. Somehow in spite of her height she carried herself in a way that this bow was clearly one of greeting rather than submission. The captain gave an expectant look to Val and Val, who had decided long ago he would never in his life bow to a Fallen, gave an awkward wave. The captain gave a short wave with one of his swords again before rushing off deeper into the bowels of the Arcology. Val exhaled hard.

“Let’s get back to the Rig,” said Aria.

—

The methane rain of titan was falling in sheets as it always was, but they had found a small observation room, still sodden and soaking and musty smelling as well, but slightly out of the worst of the downpour. The windows had been shot out or perhaps repurposed for a more populated area of the Arcology long ago, and occasionally a stray wind brought in a wall of sideways blown rain, but it was enough. Aria’s ghost busied itself with looking through a golden age terminal.

“Sorry about that,” said Aria.

“About what?” said Val.

“I know you wanted to kill him,” said Aria.

“I didn’t want to kill hi—I mean–I dunno I don’t really think about it. I’m really used to them trying to kill me… and you,” Val readjusted the hood of his cloak, “You think being buddy-buddy with one Fallen Captain is going to change things?”

“They chased the Traveler all the way here,” said Aria, quietly, “Sometimes I wonder if… if we were put into their position, if we would do the same.”

“The whole ‘we’re not so different, you and I’ spiel?” said Val as a stray wind blew a sheet of rain in their faces. His Ghost flicked rain off of itself with a few whirs of its panels. Val chuckled, “Okay, I know  _you’d_  chase after the Traveler in a heartbeat. If the Traveler jumped into a supervolcano you’d fly right in after it.”

“Well I mean… it has the Light,” Aria said and Val snorted. They were quiet for a while. “I know it’s not easy for you,” said Aria.

“Look, nothing’s been easy ever since the Traveler brought me back,” said Val, “And.. y’know if it helps, I barely remember anything before that. It’s just… what little is there is burned in there, but I’m pretty sure I’ve died in at least 57 worse ways since becoming a Guardian so…” Val gestured, “Don’t worry about it.” 

“I mean… you understand though, don’t you? We could find out so much more about the Traveler and the Darkness from them if we could only open up channels of communication,” said Aria.

“I dunno, you’re the one who suddenly wants to play diplomat,” said Val, “I’ll leave that shit to you and… I’ll still have your back when one of those four-armed bastards tries to put a knife in it.”

“I know you will,” said Aria.

“And… y’know who knows?” said Val, “You’ve done some pretty crazy shit in the time I’ve known you. If anyone’s going to figure out how to work things out with the Fallen, I don’t see why it couldn’t be you.”

The light and mist in the Eye of Another World burgeoned and swirled.

“You smiling under there?” said Val.

“Yes,” said Aria.


End file.
